The first comprehensive analysis, “At the Root of Exodus: Food security, conflict and international migration,” explores the role that food security and other factors play in compelling cross-border migration.

As the number of migrant deaths worldwide continues to rise, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has recorded 23 per cent more migrant deaths during the first half of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015.

Nigeria, Chad and Niger account for three-quarters of the population facing severe food insecurity, in particular communities in north-western Chad, where those facing crisis levels of food insecurity has more than doubled.

Extreme poverty, fast-growing populations, climate change, recurrent food and nutrition crises and insecurity are building up, threatening the lives of communities already living on the brink of crisis.

The regions most affected by Boko Haram - Logone et Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo Tsanaga - have seen a 400 percent increase in the number of severely food insecure people, from 53,000 to over 200,000 in six months.

In 2016, some 23.5 million people – almost one in six - will not have enough to eat, of whom at least 6 million will require emergency food assistance. Acute malnutrition will threaten the lives of 5.9 million children under-five.